Free Republic

The South Side lakefront jewel where Barack and Michelle Obama held their wedding reception vs. a rare, open downtown field set against Chicago's majestic mountain range of skyscrapers. These are just a few of the preliminary offerings area universities plan to present to the president, the first lady and the few confidants helping them as they begin to weigh where to locate the Obama presidential library and museum. Meanwhile, the University of Hawaii, where the president grew up, has said it wants to build the library on oceanfront property in Kakaako, a commercial and retail district of Honolulu between Ala...

At a ceremony commemorating some of the bravest Americans of World War II, President Barack Obama reminded the "greatest generation" how the U.S. military has changed under his command, by slipping in references to immigrants and women. "Rock, I want you to know that Staff Sgt. Melvin Sabillo Martin, who is here today, is following in your footsteps. He just had to become an American first. Because Melvin was born in Honduras, moved to the United States, joined the Army. After tours in Iraq and Afghanistan, he was reassigned to the 82nd Airborne. And Sunday, he'll parachute into Normandy. "Wilson,...

It’s finally happening! Libs are starting to realize that the manufactured image of Barack Obama as a brilliant, capable executive is hooey, and that they have bought into an incompetent who threatens to sink them. Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post doesn’t quite put it in those terms, of course, but you don’t have to read between the lines too closely to come up with that interpretation of his piece entitled, “Americans are starting to doubt President Obama is a good boss.”

Chris Matthews Is Not a Fan of This Bowe Bergdahl Deal MSNBC’s Chris Matthews doesn’t seem to have gotten the channel’s memo on the Bowe Bergdahl deal. Many liberal pundits on his network have shown nearly lockstep support for the Obama administration’s handling of the trade of five Taliban commanders for Bergdahl, who’s been accused of desertion by many of his fellow soldiers. However, Matthews, usually a huge fan of the president, has sharply criticized the cost of the trade, the national security consequences of releasing dangerous “Johnnies” as he put it, the actions of Bergdahl himself and the legality...

President Barack Obama in Brussels on Thursday refused to apologize for the deal to recover Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, saying some of his critics are trying to manufacture a controversy. “I’m never surprised by controversies that are whipped up in Washington,” the president said. It wasn’t the first time Obama dismissed objections to his policies as nothing more than political theater. Here’s a look at seven other times when the president has derided his critics as playing political games. 1. “The debate we’re having right now is about what, Benghazi? Obamacare? It becomes this endless loop. It’s not serious. It’s...

President Obama, facing rising bipartisan criticism over his handling of the Taliban-for-Bergdahl prisoner swap, dug in his heels Thursday and declared he would make "absolutely no apologies" for bringing an American soldier home -- as his administration stepped up its defense of the controversial deal. The president fielded a question on the Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl controversy during a press conference on Thursday in Brussels, Belgium, alongside British Prime Minister David Cameron. Amid signals that the administration plans to aggressively challenge critics of the deal, the president brushed off the pushback as business as usual in Washington. "I'm never surprised by...

I feel as though I have accidentally stepped into the transporter and been transported to Bizarro world. You have to rub your eyes and read again what is on the screen. I have never seen anything like this in my life. Jonathan Turley said Obama has become the President Nixon wished he could have been. Maybe, but Nixon would not insult one's intelligence so baldly as this wretched regime does on a daily basis. You go out your front door. It's raining. You're getting wet. Obama tells you it's sunny. Jen Psaki says it's sunny. Jay Carney says it's sunny....

An Obama administration official has floated the idea that Bowe Bergdahl was justified in deserting his platoon in Afghanistan and joining the Taliban over disagreements with the platoon's leadership. Brandon Friedman, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs for the Department of Housing and Urban Development posted a series of tweets Wednesday evening in which he speculated that Bergdahl deserted over bad leadership of his platoon and that is why his fellow soldiers were smearing him."Here's the thing about Bergdahl and the Jump-to-Conclusions mats: What if his platoon was long on psychopaths and short on leadership? (1/5)"" What if he grew...

Family members of an American woman and Canadian man who went missing in Afghanistan in 2012 have released videos showing the couple captive. Caitlan Coleman, sat next to Joshua Boyle, appeals to "my president, Barack Obama" for help. The videos were emailed to Ms Coleman's family by an Afghan man months after she and Mr Boyle went missing. The families of the captive couple said they decided to make the videos public because of Bowe Bergdahl's release. They said their were disappointed the two were not freed as part of a prisoner swap deal that led to US soldier, Sgt...

WASHINGTON D.C., United States, Sunday June 1, 2014, CMC – President Barak Obama has proclaimed June, 2014 National Caribbean-American Heritage month, stating that the US is expanding cooperation with its Caribbean partners, in promoting social justice and prosperity throughout the Americas. He said during National Caribbean-American Heritage Month, America will honour Caribbean Americans’ history, culture, and ‘essential role in the American narrative’. He said the US is seeking to, “create new educational opportunities for young people across the Caribbean basin, as well as for Caribbean Americans in our own communities”. “We are also working to advance commonsense immigration reform that...

State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf engaged in a heated exchange Tuesday with a reporter over the circumstances surrounding Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl’s capture five years ago, saying she does not think his squad mates have the best idea of what happened when he disappeared. When Fox News reporter Lucas Tomlinson asked, “Does the State Department consider Sergeant Bergdahl to be a deserter?” Harf replied, “The State Department — no, Lucas. Look, what we’ve said is we are going to learn the facts about what happened here.” “He’s been in captivity, Lucas. I think he’s probably the person who knows...

(VIDEO-AT-LINK) Todd: White House was 'caught off guard' MSNBC’S Chuck Todd observed Tuesday that the White House was “caught off guard” by the disastrous public roll out of their prisoner exchange for Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl. Todd and Andrea Mitchell agreed that the White House had likely thought there would be “some euphoria around this, the only POW that was remaining in Afghanistan, that there would be a rally around the flag. That didn’t happen.” “They were expecting criticisms of Gitmo, criticisms of the detainees that were chosen,” Todd said. “They did not expect this criticism of the attempt to...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is re-establishing a law enforcement group to fight those it designates as domestic terrorists, with an announcement expected on Tuesday, Department of Justice officials said. Following hate-motivated shootings such as the one at a Jewish Community Center in Kansas City, Missouri in April, federal prosecutors have pressed the need to coordinate intelligence of such criminals on a national level, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The group will coordinate cases that involve Americans who may be spurred to violence for political or prejudicial reasons.

THE US government secretly advised Scottish ministers it would be "far preferable" to free the Lockerbie bomber than jail him in Libya. Correspondence obtained by The Sunday Times reveals the Obama administration considered compassionate release more palatable than locking up Abdel Baset al-Megrahi in a Libyan prison. The intervention, which has angered US relatives of those who died in the attack, was made by Richard LeBaron, deputy head of the US embassy in London, a week before Megrahi was freed in August last year on grounds that he had terminal cancer. The document, acquired by a well-placed US source, threatens...

NASA has been talking about sending people to Mars by 2035. That goal is still on the books, despite recent upheaval in the space program, according to two of the agency's top scientists. "In the near term, Mars remains our primary focus," Ellen Stofan, NASA's chief scientist said May 15 in a talk at the Royal Institution in London ... ....scientists [also] decided to "redirect" an asteroid into an orbit of the moon and are searching for an asteroid that's an appropriate candidate. "Once we find the right one, we'll use all the technology we've got," he said. "We'll snag...

Liberals wanted a national enrollment system under Obamacare. They might just get it. Right now, 36 states rely on HealthCare.gov, the federal exchange, to enroll people in health coverage. At least two more states are opting in next year, with a few others likely to follow. Only two states are trying to get out. That’s precisely the opposite of the Affordable Care Act’s original intent: 50 exchanges run by 50 states. The federal option was supposed to be a limited and temporary fallback. But a shift to a bigger, more permanent Washington-controlled system is instead underway — without preparation, funding...

As Twitchy has reported, President Obama ordered the release of five Gitmo detainees to secure the return of Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl from his Taliban captors in Afghanistan. Recently, a tweet was published from the account of Bowe Bergdahl’s father, Robert, which stated a desire to see all Gitmo detainees released. Here’s the tweet from Bob Bergdahl’s account, which was published May 28 and deleted Saturday night (at the time of publication the deletion of the tweet has not been acknowledged on the account): @ABalkhi I am still working to free all Guantanamo prisoners. God will repay for the death of...

Emails an American soldier reportedly sent to his parents before he was captured by the Taliban three years ago suggest he was disillusioned and considering deserting. Bowe Bergdahl told his parents he was "ashamed to even be American" and was disgusted with the U.S. mission in Afghanistan and with the Army, according to emails quoted in Rolling Stone magazine.

The Dept. of Health and Human Services (HHS) ruled today that “sex reassignment surgery” and other transition-related medical care should no longer be automatically excluded from coverage. “As HHS appropriately points out, excluding coverage for transition-related surgery is unreasonable as viewed by the standards of the medical profession today – incomplete, unfair, and obsolete,” said SPARTA Policy Director, former Army Captain Allyson Robinson. “The application of scientifically proven, internationally recognized standards of care to recipients of Medicare is a step in the right direction.” She continued, “As transgender service members continue to put themselves in harm’s way for our country,...

This morning, President Obama traveled to West Point to congratulate the newest officers in the United States Army and to reflect on America's foreign policy agenda. In the President's remarks, he acknowledged that our world is changing with accelerating speed and that America must be equipped to respond to an increasingly dynamic environment. It will be your generation's task to respond to this new world. The question we face; the question you will face; is not whether America will lead, but how we will lead, not just to secure our peace and prosperity, but also to extend peace and prosperity...